South Bend officials concerned over bill to establish mental health crisis response unit in fire department

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – City officials shared their concerns with a recently filed bill proposal—Bill 22-36—that aimed to establish a mental health crisis response unit within the fire department, after the death of Dante Kittrell on July 29.

The bill criticized how the South Bend Police Department handled the situation and cited the need for such a unit, and used cities like San Francisco, CA and Madison, WI as examples, having similar teams within their own departments.

But the bill drew criticism from officials like Mayor James Mueller, Council Vice President Sheila Niezgodski, Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski and Fire Chief Carl Buchanon—who argued the bill’s language did nothing to establish a unit within the fire department.

“This was hastily filed,” said Niezgodski. “We don’t know who the co-sponsors are or who the sponsor is, or who’s doing the presentation or the bullet points of the intent of this resolution.”

ABC57 later learned that the bill was sponsored by Common Council representatives Henry Davis Jr and Lori Hamann.

“These council resolutions are non-binding, so even if passed, they don’t actually do anything to move this forward,” said Mayor Mueller, who argued that introducing the bill now would create confusion, as the city had been working with Beacon Hospital, Oaklawn and other agencies to create a mental health crisis unit and center for nearly three years.

Chief Scott Ruszkowski said, “This has been a slow, but methodical process—in progress. It’s not moving as fast as I feel it should be, but it is moving.”

Ruszkowski and Buchanon both said neither of them were contacted about the bill; Buchanon added that even if the bill was passed, the department is not equipped to handle those calls.

“We don’t have the staffing for it, for one, but we are not mental health clinicians or evaluators,” Buchanon said. He believes the departments need to work together in solving this problem, instead of being singled out as the solution.

“It’s going to take a total community effort to achieve this,” he said.

The bill was tabled indefinitely by the Common Council at 4:45 p.m. on Monday.